Plastic “T-shirt” style shopping or grocery bags are widely used by retail establishments to package consumers purchases. The conventional T-shirt style grocery bag is made of thin plastic material with cutouts at the open end to form two handles for carrying the bag. These handles make the bag convenient for carrying items since the handles are readily accessible and the handles of several bags can be gripped together for carrying. Unlike a box or even a standard paper grocery bag, both of which have some degree of rigidity, the conventional T-shirt style grocery bag does not have the ability to maintain any shape apart from the shape of whatever items are placed in the bag. When transported in a vehicle, the items within T-shirt style grocery bags may shift position, roll around and come out of the bags.
A number of different inventions have been disclosed to address the need to secure items in grocery bags during transport.
The use of a fixed assembly having hooks to which the grocery bags are attached is disclosed in a number of patents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,971 issued Feb. 22, 1994 to Dorman discloses a bag holder comprising a rack installed in the trunk of a vehicle, with a raised horizontal bar from which grocery bags are suspended. The raised bar has a series of hooks anchored thereon at spaced positions to which the loaded bags are attached. U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,746 B1, issued Apr. 9, 2002 to Webb et al. discloses a bag holder with a plurality of hangers which form a rack. The grocery bag handles are placed over the hangers and held securely in place. The invention's design requires the bags be placed evenly around the assembly for stability. U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,288, issued Jun. 27, 1995 to Trubee discloses a grocery-bag holder rack for use in vehicles that consists of a horizontal rack upon which pluralities of hooks are disposed. The handles of the grocery bags are placed on the hooks during transport.
However, all of these devices, once installed in the vehicle trunk take up precious cargo space and cannot comfortably and functionally coexist with other cargo in the trunk area and must be removed to fully utilize the trunk space. Although the devices are removable, the user can only reclaim the cargo space if the device is removed at a location where it can be stored separately from the vehicle such as at home. If the trunk space is needed at a location away from home there may be no convenient option to store the grocery bag holder outside of the trunk. Also all the above-mentioned devices require each grocery bag to be individually attached to a hook, a process that is tedious and time consuming. In addition, the number of grocery bags that can be accommodated by such devices is limited to the number of hooks the device has.
A number of inventions address grocery bags in vehicles by implementing a type of rack into which the grocery bags are loaded. U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,040, issued Nov. 21, 2000 to Walker discloses a removable vehicle trunk organizer with multiple compartments. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,244, issued Jun. 14, 1977 to Roberts discloses a collapsible stand for transporting loaded grocery bags. U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,348, issued Sep. Oct. 7, 1980 to Dottor et al. discloses a collapsible trunk contained grocery bag holder.
However, all of these collapsible devices, while freeing trunk space, still take up significant space on the floor of the trunk compartment, even in the collapsed position. Also, the number of compartments limits the number of bags that can be accommodated by these devices. In addition, each bag must be individually loaded into each compartment, which is tedious and time consuming.
A number of inventions address securing grocery bags in vehicles by way of freestanding foldable apparatus onto which the grocery bag handles are draped. U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,825, issued Sep. 24, 1991 to Bratset discloses a grocery bag support having a base and upright members for the purpose of supporting a plurality of filled grocery bags. U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,102 issued Nov. 7, 1995 to LeBlanc et. al. discloses a foldable apparatus for transporting filled grocery bags in an upright position.
However, all of these devices suffer from similar limitations as the previously mentioned inventions in that they continue to take up trunk space even in the collapsed position; the number of upright members limits the number of bags that can be accommodated and the user must individually load bags on the upright members, a tedious and time consuming process.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a grocery bag holder that takes up little cargo area space when not being used.
Additionally, it would be desirable to have a grocery bag holder that can co-exist with other cargo at the same time that it is holding grocery bags.
Additionally, it would be desirable to have a grocery bag holder that is easily removed and can be stowed in a minimum of space when it is removed.
Additionally, it would be desirable to have a grocery bag holder that can hold a variable number of bags and is not limited to a defined number of bags by it's design or geometry.
Additionally, it would be desirable to have a grocery bag holder that can be adjusted to fit in the trunk of any car.
Additionally, it would be desirable to have a grocery bag holder that allows the user to load and remove the grocery bags in a single quick motion.
Further, it would be desirable to have a grocery bag holder that can be inexpensively and easily manufactured using commonly available materials.